Chuch had driven for a little over an hour to a city that was north of the town she was staying in. She hadn't been here in what felt like forever, but it had only been five years since the last time.

Her nerves were eating away at her during the drive, and now they were reaching their breaking point as she stood staring at the door in front of her.
She didn't like coming here, but it was time to come back. It was time to deal with the things she had left behind. It was also time to find out about something which she had almost forgotten about from many years ago.

As Chuch opened the door to the storage unit, sadness and grief washed over her. This is where she stored her life. Not all of it could accompany her on the road, and because she couldn't bring herself to get rid of all of it, it had to remain somewhere. The mementos of her childhood, her family, her history, all of it located within these four grey cold walls.

Chuch took a moment to stand in the middle of the space and breathe it in. It wasn't very fair to have her life in boxes locked up for years on end. But there was no other choice, not when most of her family had already passed or were also in the hunting business as well. Even though she'd grown up not far from here, Chuch didn't have a place that she called home any more. Her family still owned the actual house, and it was still standing, empty and rotting, but standing. But it wasn't her home any longer and hadn't been for a very long time.

Her eyes found an open box and settled on a picture. She took out the frame and stared at the picture within it. A few tears fell down her cheeks as she held onto the frame tightly and looked into her eyes and the eyes of the man beside her in the photograph.

She'd already been a hunter then, but life had been happier, brighter. The man with her in the photo had been her lover, her best friend, and her partner – he was also from one of the other twelve families, but not one of the thirteen from her generation.

It had been five years since she'd lost him to the demon now. Five years since he'd been ripped not only from her life, but her heart as well. And it still hurt.

It had never made sense as to why Ronove had killed him, but he was responsible for it. He'd told her after it happened. Another demon had done it, but it had been done on Ronove's orders.

She hadn't told Sam and Dean about this part of her past, she saw no relevance in mentioning it and opening her old wounds up herself.

Chuch placed the frame back in the box and wiped the tears from her eyes. She hadn't come here to cry or to drag up the pain. There was one thing she was after in this storage unit, and she knew exactly where she'd left it.

After moving aside a large group of boxes and then lifting up a rug that had been lying under them, Chuch pulled up a panel of the floor to reveal a safe. She had had the safe installed the last time she was here, and only the person who had helped her and she knew that it was here.

The safe was top of the line, and was covered in an assortment of symbols and spells that protected from almost everything supernatural from getting what was inside of it. Sure, a human might stand some chance of getting it in, should all the alarms have been cut. The unit was rigged with them, as was the safe.

Chuch went through the series of security measures, one of which required a scan of her hand, dialled in the combination and opened the safe. Then she pulled out old lockbox and removed the chain from around her neck.

The key was for the box, and what was in the box, Chuch had never been sure. It had been given to her by her grandmother before she had passed on many years ago. She'd sworn to never open it until the time was right. When the time was right, Chuch wasn't sure she'd ever know, but her grandmother had told her that when it came, in her heart she would know. And Chuch felt now was the time as she only had a few days left if she couldn't be saved.

A twist of the key, the pop of the lock and Chuch opened the lid of the lockbox. Inside she found an envelope with her name scrawled on the front of it, and underneath it something lay wrapped in a dark velvet cloth.

She picked up the envelope, opened it and started to read the note that had been left for her, and that was when her hands started to shake and Chuch's world was blown apart.

***

"So wait, Bobby tracked down the crossbow? When do we get it" Sam asked as they got out of the car and went into their motel room.

"Yeah, he traced it back to the last person known to have it and should probably still have it," Dean said as he sat down on his bed. "I don't know when we'll get it."

"Has he gone to get it?" Sam sat on his bed and turned on his laptop.

"Uh… no."

Sam didn't get it, Bobby knew they needed the crossbow, but he wasn't going to get it? There had to be some sort of reason for the delay. "No? He knows we need it, so what's going on?"

"He's waiting for the person to call back."

"Oh… I hope we can get it in time then." Sam went quiet and started searching for something related to Ronove.

"Has Bobby ever not come through for us?" Dean flicked on the TV and started channel surfing.

"That's true." Sam put the laptop aside and picked up his phone. He dialled Chuch and listened to her phone ring on the other end. It rang about eight times before the voicemail greeting kicked in. Sam sighed and hung up before the beep went off.

He wanted to share the news with her, even if it was only half good. There was no guarantee that they would be able to get their hands on the crossbow after all, but as Dean had pointed out, Bobby always came through for them. Sam just hoped that Ronove wouldn't show up before then.

Sam called her again and this time left a short message asking Chuch to call him back because they'd heard from Bobby. Then he went back to researching on the laptop while Dean watched a movie.

*

Four hours had passed since they'd been back at the motel and Chuch still hadn't called Sam back.
He'd given up on researching Ronove. He hadn't found that much anyway, and wanted to borrow the book he'd seen Chuch reading at the diner the other night.
He tried just hanging out and watching whatever it was Dean had on, but his mind was elsewhere. He was wrapped up in trying to put the pieces that didn't add up together from Chuch's story and her book.

Then there was the deal of them maybe not getting the crossbow on time that was bugging him.

Sam was also worried that he hadn't heard back from Chuch yet. He had no idea what she had to do, where she'd gone or if something had happened to her in the meantime.

He tried calling her again, but still there was no answer and he didn't want to fill up her inbox with messages, he'd left her four already.

"Dude, what are you, thirteen and waiting for your boyfriend to call?" Dean had noticed Sam checking his phone, fidgeting and the few phone calls he'd made to Chuch already.

Sam groaned. "Chuch knew I'd call her when we heard from Bobby. It's already been like six hours since she left Dean. She should have been back by now."

"She can take care of herself Sam."

"I know, it's just… she was waiting for Bobby to call too. You'd think she'd be in touch by now, unless Ronove has her." Sam was worried, and he was sure that not only could Dean see it, but also hear it in his voice.

"No chance. He's not coming for her on her own when he knows we're here too," Dean tried to reassure Sam. He knew how Ronove acted, knew the demon wouldn't refuse taking a chance at destroying them now that he knew they were trying to help Chuch. Vengeance was a beast, and so was Ronove. Dean knew the bastard would try to kill him, and if he could finish off Sam while he was at it, he would.

"You're sure?" Sam had to ask even though he trusted Dean.

"Of course," Dean smiled at his brother, "and when he does come, he's going home without a goody bag full of souls."

Sam nodded. "I hope you're right," he muttered.

"I am, just like when I tell you Chuch will show up."

"Yeah, I know."

"And you'll be keeping watch over her when she does while I'm out. Speaking of… don't want to keep the waitress waiting by sitting here watching you mope." Dean grinned devilishly as he got up and put on a jacket.

Sam was going to say something, but then stopped himself. "All right."

"Untwist your panties, she'll show up soon enough Sammy."

"Uh huh. Night Dean."

"Call me if anything happens… night Sammy." Dean walked out of the door and headed off to his date.

Sam sat there for a moment before he tried calling Chuch again. There was still no answer and even though he knew Dean was right, he couldn't help but worry about where she was or what had happened to her. He had a feeling that it was nothing good though.

Note: Hope you're enjoying the story still! Thanks for reading :)